Family and friends of basketball legend Benji Wilson held a candlelight vigil under his honorary street sign. (Photos by Marcus Robinson)
Underneath a layer of snow at Oak Woods Cemetery is the grave of Benji Wilson. On Thursday, November 21, two inches of snow covered Wilson’s small headstone in the cemetery’s Garden of Meditation section. Four decades ago, a huge crowd of mourners wailed and were overcome with grief while Wilson’s body was lowered into the ground.
At 6 feet 8 inches tall, he dazzled basketball fans with dunks and layups at Simeon Vocational High School. Teenage boys wanted to be like him. The media loved him. So did many girls. Many fans say he was destined to be even better than Michael Jordan, but Wilson never made it past high school.
Forty years ago, Revin Fellows was in the cafeteria as a student at Aurora University when he saw a news flash across the television screen. Benji Wilson, the nation’s number one basketball player at Simeon High School, had been shot twice during an altercation with two teenagers on November 20, 1984.
“I was like, this can’t be true,” Fellows said.
Fellows immediately left the cafeteria and went back to his dorm where he said he received a call from his brother, who confirmed the news. One day later, Wilson, a rising basketball star who gained national attention for his skills on the court, died at St. Bernard Hospital, leaving many fans in shock and plunging Chicago and the nation into deep mourning.
It was a day that Fellows, many fans, and Simeon alumni still vividly remember. On Thursday, November 21, 2024, Fellows joined Wilson’s brother, Jeff Wilson and about 15 people during a candlelight vigil in Chatham to mark the 40th Anniversary of a tragic event that changed their lives and countless others forever.
On a chilly night under drizzling skies, the group gathered to tell stories and give speeches at the corner of 78th and Eberhart, the street where Wilson grew up in a tiny house that’s less than two miles from Simeon High School. Today, the road has an honorary street sign named after Wilson in 2022 on the 38th anniversary of his death.
Under that sign, politicians and Simeon alumni and fans held a joyous and, at times, somber occasion as the group remembered Wilson’s short life, which included a promising professional basketball career that he never got the chance to achieve.
“I was depressed because I knew Benji personally. Benji and my cousin were on the same Frosh-Soph team during the summer league. During the summer, I coached and mentored them by having them play on my summer basketball team with older guys,” Fellows told the Crusader. “I was distraught. I was like, man, this was too deep.”
Wilson’s brother, Jeff Wilson, spoke, as did Aldermen William Hall (6th) and Simeon alumni David Moore (17th). Alderman Ronnie Mosley (21st) was also there. A Simeon number 25 basketball jersey with Wilson’s name on it was on display and a candle was lit in Wilson’s honor. Hall presented Jeff with a proclamation from the City by Mayor Brandon Johnson.
The proclamation declared November 21st Benji Wilson Day.
“He aimed for the stars. He taught us to aim high,” said Hall. “He put Chicago on the map before anyone. He reminded the world that great things can come from places the world doesn’t look at. So, we’re grateful for his life and legacy. When you think of Benji, shoot like Benji, show up like Benji. Defend those who need to be defended like Benji.”
Alderman David Moore, who graduated from Simeon the same year Wilson died, said Wilson and the 1984 team made that year fun as Simeon won the school’s first State Class AA Boys’ Basketball Championship.
“We’re talking about packed gyms. We’re talking about people standing on top of each other,” Moore said. “We’re talking about packing the UIC pavilion, where people were standing outside to watch the Wolverines play King.”
One day before Simeon’s season opener, Wilson was shot in the groin and abdomen during an altercation with Billy Moore and Omar Dixon, who were students at Calumet High School. Wilson had inadvertently bumped into Billy Moore, who, with a .22 caliber pistol, was at Simeon to avenge a crime committed against his cousin, who was robbed of $10 by another Simeon student.
It took more than 40 minutes for the ambulance to arrive before Wilson was taken to St. Bernard Hospital in Englewood. Wilson died the next day, November 21, 1984, at a small hospital that did not have a level 1 trauma center. Wilson suffered massive blood loss after he was shot.
Mayor Harold Washington visited Simeon and spoke to grieving students. Wilson’s wake was held inside Simeon’s gymnasium on November 24 that year. A line of mourners that included friends, schoolmates and Chicago residents stretched an entire city block. Mayor Washington attended the vigil and spoke to Wilson’s father, and former Mayor Jane Byrne was also in attendance.
News of Wilson’s death spread across the nation as networks reported the incident on their evening newscasts. The shooting renewed concerns about gun violence in Chicago, where the victims were often young Black men like Wilson. Aware of Wilson’s bright future, his siblings, coaches, and mentors took steps to protect Wilson from violence and keep him out of trouble.
In 2010, activist Jeff Maxwell, 50, said he received a calling from God to save young Black men.
“The mantle of Ben Wilson was in the heart of my calling, but as we save our young Black men, that’s the mantle we will use in that effort.”
Wilson’s funeral was held at the headquarters of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Operation Rainbow PUSH – now the Rainbow PUSH Coalition – the day after the wake and vigil. Wilson’s father, Benjamin Wilson Sr., died in 1998. Benji’s mother, Mary Gunter Wilson, died in 2000. Brandon Wilson, Benji’s only son he had with girlfriend Jetun Rush, died in a car accident in Long Island, N.Y, on January 13, 2022.
Benji’s oldest brother, Curtis Glenn, died last year on October 8, 2023.
Since Benji’s death, Simeon has produced several NBA players, including Nick Anderson, Derrick Rose and Jabari Parker.
After being convicted of killing Benji, Billy Moore served 19 years and nine months in prison before his release in 2004.
According to news reports in 2020, Benji’s brothers—Jeffrey and Anthony Wilson—publicly forgave Billy Moore during an anti-gun violence documentary screening called “Both Sides of the Gun: A Story of Reconciliation.” It was decades after their mother asked them to do so on her deathbed.
The screening was moderated by rapper Common and former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at Malcolm X College. It was attended by more than 300 elementary and high school students. After the screening, Billy Moore elaborated on the moments that led to Wilson’s fatal shooting during a panel discussion
“It was just an argument that went bad. It wasn’t a robbery. Ben was feeling a certain type of way, and he wasn’t backing down. I wasn’t backing down,” Billy Moore said, adding he didn’t have the emotional tools to end the argument peacefully. “I still live with the loss of Benji every day. I know that when I die and I have to stand in front of my maker, I have to account for that.”
Benji’s brother, Jeff Wilson, said, “There are still a lot of stories to be told about my brother’s legacy. People are trying to bootleg my brother’s legacy, and I have to carry the torch. Every time a young child gets killed; it reignites the pain all over again. My brother Anthony and I took an immensely powerful stance [of forgiveness]. I did it for God and Chicago first.”
After last week’s vigil, a get-together was held at the Time Out Lounge across the street from Simeon High School.
